profits – MMO Fallout

Activision Made $1.2 Billion In Microtransactions Last Quarter

Activision releases quarterly income.

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Netmarble Posts $1.8 Billion Sales In 2019 Fiscal Year

Why make millions when we can make…billions?

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Perfect World Entertainment Posts Strong Growth

Perfect World Entertainment has posted their most recent quarterly income, showing a strong growth in the first quarter of 2014 despite lowered promotional activity. Revenue for the international publisher amounted to $124 million, down 2.5% from the previous quarter but going along overall with a 44% annual growth. The mobile sector of Perfect World Entertainment grew from 10% of overall revenue to 15% last quarter, thanks in part to the 3D mobile RPG Fantasy of the Immortals.

The publisher is set to increase revenues thanks to their deal to publish Dota 2 and Neverwinter in China, both of which are expected to launch this year. Neverwinter is also expanding several titles in its library to more territories, including the Portuguese version of Neverwinter which launched in Brazil earlier this year. Revenue for the second quarter is expected to rise around five percent, thanks to upcoming launches in China.

(Source: PWE income report)

70,000 Copies of The Secret World Sold Since Buy To Play

Alright, so first the bad news. Funcom has released a brand new press release where they discuss that the company will be undergoing some continued restructuring. Costs will be reduced through the closure and consolidation of offices to create a more unified organization. The goal is to use Funcom’s new streamlined technology to better serve their existing MMOs (Secret World, Anarchy Online, Age of Conan) as well as focusing on upcoming, smaller yet high quality titles including the Lego minifigure MMO. The good news, however, is that The Secret World’s transition to buy to play was a completely unsurprising success. Since December, over seventy thousand new units of The Secret World have been sold. As new players come into the game and old players return, activity levels in game have jumped 400%.

“We are building the basis of a very sustainable business. With a restructured organization, we will have a joint team of the best-of-the-best working together to expand our existing online worlds and to create new, exciting and memorable online experiences such as our upcoming ‘LEGO Minifigures’ game.”
-Ole Schreiner, CEO of Funcom

More details will be available in the future, once the process is complete.

(Source: Funcom)

Mortal Online Q1 2012: Sales Up, Mortal Online on "Major Gaming Platforms"

More news from the Star Vault…vault. The financial details for Star Vault’s first quarter have been released, and it appears the trend may finally break. Back in February, Henrik Nystrom announced a 50% increase in sales and an 80% increase in user activity. During the 2011 interim report, Star Vault revised its projection of breaking even in 2011 to a new prediction that the game would break even in the second quarter of 2012.

According to Star Vault’s reports, the number of monthly subscriptions increased slightly compared to the fourth quarter. The sale of licenses increased 68% from last quarter. Even with the increase in sales, Henrik notes that the game could still be friendlier to new players, which the company intends to accomplish with the release of Awakening in Q2 2012.

It is important to emphasize that the expansion includes enhancements and additions that we hope will appeal to the wider audience. Among other things, it will be easier to get into the game for new players. The expansion will also lead to the constant will be something interesting to do in the game, although it would not be interested in playing conflicts and / or war.

Henrik also mentions Mortal Online appearing on “major gaming platforms.”

According to our assessment, we, following the launch of “The Awakening”, to meet the standard requirements that exist for a game to be approved on the major gaming platforms.

Mortal Online Q1 2012: Sales Up, Mortal Online on “Major Gaming Platforms”

It is important to emphasize that the expansion includes enhancements and additions that we hope will appeal to the wider audience. Among other things, it will be easier to get into the game for new players. The expansion will also lead to the constant will be something interesting to do in the game, although it would not be interested in playing conflicts and / or war.

Henrik also mentions Mortal Online appearing on “major gaming platforms.”

According to our assessment, we, following the launch of “The Awakening”, to meet the standard requirements that exist for a game to be approved on the major gaming platforms.

Jagex: Profits And Investors, Not Doing A Crap Job

RuneScape’s roots go back ten years, to 2001 where the game was a simple at home project by Andrew Gower. With the Gowers now mostly absent (they resigned from the Board of Directors in December 2010), the torch has been passed to Mark Gerhard to keep the developer moving in its upward trend. Granted, Jagex has multiple MMOs in production (Stellar Dawn and Transformers Online, to name just the two slated for release this year), so the rise in revenue but dip in profits reported for 2010-2011 was to be expected at some extent.

But fret not, investors and gamers. To the former, Jagex isn’t some cheap floozy willing to take just anyone’s money. In an interview with Games Industry, Mark Gerhard wants to set the record straight that Jagex dates very, very selectively.

Nothing has changed as far as the company goes. It’s the same management team, we’ve obviously been at the helm for quite some time and to the best of our knowledge and expectation it will continue to be so. Sure we therefore have some American shareholders, but the management and the culture and the ethos and everything else is the same people, in the same hands, and staunchly British.

Gerhard attributes the dip in profits to Jagex investing more in the company instead of paying dividends, a move which apparently began around the time Insight Ventures attained 55% ownership in Jagex (end of 2010). He also paints a picture that, regardless of the shift in majority ownership, nothing has changed at Jagex since Insight Ventures took the majority vote.

Jagex has quite an interesting year ahead of it, what with continued investment in RuneScape, the recent launch of their HTML-based game 8Realms, and the upcoming launches of Transformers Online and Stellar Dawn.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz) You’ll need to be registered to view the article.

NCsoft Q1 2011 Finances In: Profits Up!

It’s that time of the year already, the first quarter financial reports are starting to stream in. Last year wasn’t so great for NCsoft, considering they lost a $28 million lawsuit against Richard Garriot. Sales of Aion, Lineage, and City of Heroes went down, while Lineage 2, Guild Wars, and NCsoft’s other titles saw a brief increase.

Another point worth noting is the American presence in NCsoft’s portfolio: It’s dropping. Whereas North America made up 12% of NCsoft’s sales in Q4 2009 (23,733), this figure has plummeted to 5% in Q1 2011 (or a paltry 7,129). Similarly, NCsoft’s presence in Japan and Taiwan has been suffering, albeit not nearly as much, and Europe has also plummeted from 12% down to 4% since Q4 2009. Royalties have skyrocketed, around 50% higher than the same time in Q1 2010. This is attributed mostly to Aion’s performance in China.

Although these figures look great for NCsoft as a whole, they don’t really spell well for the Western markets for the coming years. As sales continue to fall in North America and Europe, NCsoft continues to shut down games, with the most recent being Lineage (just in the west) this June. Perhaps the trend can turn around with NCsoft’s upcoming titles: Blade and Soul, Lineage III, and Guild Wars 2 are looking to draw in big crowds, with Guild Wars 2 likely being the first to launch.

I’ll be keeping watch on NCsoft as I always do.

WoW: Microtransactions Make Up For Lost Subscriptions

Well, it’s May, and that can only mean Q1 financial are up, and there are many calls to be made. Who better to run through for this article than Blizzard? I mean, they’re name is on the banner image.

First, the bad news. The subscription numbers for World of Warcraft have dropped back to pre-Cataclysm 11.4 million. This has been attributed to the speed at which players are completing Cataclysm’s content, which is much faster than previous (Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King) expansion packs. On the other hand, Blizzard still has 11.4 million paying customers, and that remains pretty impressive.

The drop in players is also likely due to the release of Rift. As in Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, Blizzard has noted in the past that competing MMOs cause a sharp decline in users, followed by a slow trickle as they calmly return with their heads down, hoping you’d forgotten about the time they smashed the floor lamp and walked out the door, claiming they’d never come back again.

On the other hand, World of Warcraft has become more profitable. If the two don’t add up, consider Blizzard’s increasing sale of microtransaction pets and mounts.

You can read Joystiq’s article here: http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/09/world-of-warcraft-dips-to-a-mere-11-4-million-subscribers/

Unsurprisingly: NCsoft Record Profits

With 16,000 accounts gone, less queues! — An indicator of high sales.

If MMO Fallout were a physical entity, I’d have a lot more fun searching through its records, what with the shelves of documents and that ladder on wheels I’d get to ride around. Going back to the earlier days of Aion’s coverage, I discovered an announcement that the MMO had hit the three hundred thousand preorder mark, along with a reminder that it’s all about the retention rate.

So it comes as no surprise that NCsoft is reporting record profits over the past quarterly report. Profits are up over one thousand percent, while sales are up nearly one hundred percent. Unsurprisingly, Aion made up 48% of those sales. Surprisingly, however, Lineage and Lineage 2 are still selling very well, at twenty seven and twenty percent respectively.

NCsoft’s rebound is very welcoming to the gaming community, especially after the company’s net income plummeted 50% in quarter 3 of last year, shortly before Aion was released, and even more so as NCsoft attempts to suppress the memories of Tabula Rasa, whose failure hit the company hard this past year.

So good work NCsoft. Keep being who you are, and keep that sweet sweet cash flowing in.

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